
#FOR LOOP IN R CODE CODE#
A for-loop consists of two parts: First, a header that specifies the collection of objects Second, a body containing a code block that is executed once per object. elements in a vector or list) to which a code block should be applied. Some simulations (e.g. for-loops specify a collection of objects (e.g. Some examples of when using loops can be appropriate: However, loop are sometimes the only way to achieve the result we want. In general loops are implemented inefficiently in R and should be avoided when better alternatives exist, especially when you’re working with large datasets. Though this raises the question when should you use a loop? Equivalent tasks can be performed with functions, which are often more efficient than loops. Loops are fairly commonly used, though sometimes a little overused in our opinion. To do this we can use the identical() function to compare the variables we created by hand with each iteration of the loop manually. So can you see why we used ncol(city) - 1 when we first set up our loop? As we have four columns in our city data frame if we didn’t use ncol(city) - 1 then eventually we’d try to add the 4 th column with the non-existent 5 th column.Īgain, it’s a good idea to test that we are getting something sensible from our loop (remember, check, check and check again!). The multiply_columns() function multiplies the city ( nairobi) and city ( genoa) columns and stores it in the temp] which is the third element of the temp list. With the break statement, we can stop the loop before it has looped. The third and final iteration of the loop i takes on the value 3. A for loop is used for iterating over a sequence: for Break. The multiply_columns() function multiplies the city ( aberdeen) and city ( nairobi) columns and stores it in the temp] which is the second element of the temp list. This page will demonstrate two R commands for timing code: proc.time and system.time. Running your code and timing it is a good starting point. The second iteration of the loop i takes on the value 2. However, if you are planning to share, package, or use your code repeatedly, you might consider the efficiency of your code. The multiply_columns() function multiplies the city ( porto) and city ( aberdeen) columns and stores it in the temp] which is the first element of the temp list. So in the first iteration of the loop i takes on the value 1. We’ll come back to why we need to subtract 1 from this in a minute. The ncol() function returns the number of columns in our city data frame which is 4 and so our loop runs from i = 1 to i = 4 - 1 which is i = 3. Basic for loop Code takes the first value from volumes and assigns it to volume and does the calculation and prints it Then it takes the second value from. When we specify our for loop notice how we subtracted 1 from ncol(city). Temp <- list() for (i in 1 :( ncol(city) - 1)) # Warning in multiply_columns(x = city, y = city): The function has # produced NAs # Warning in multiply_columns(x = city, y = city): The function has # produced NAs 1.4.2 Integrated developement environements.
